MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.
Zijnil, . . . . AHAB. Mats (temporary), lino).
Nikah, Shadi, DEKIIAN. Laggan, . . . Maim Lyalt,•Aktl, . . JIIND. Tazawnj, . . . Pr.m.
Katkhudai, . . . „ Kalyanara, . . . Taw.
In the E. Indies, amongst its various races, forms of marriage are to be seen from the simplest modes of mutual consent, through all the various known procedures of marriage by capture, com munity of right, polygamy, polyandry, temporary marriages, permanent lifelong marriages, endoga mous marriage within the tribe or race, exogamous marriage out of the tribe or race ; and there are sects of men and women who never marry, and men and women who marry only once.
Mr. M'Lcnnan and Sir John Lubbock have examined, at length, the subject of primitive marriage, and various writers on the tribes and races in the south and east of Asia have furnished notices of the prevailing marriage customs. A popular theory is that marriage sprang from the family, which developed into the clan ; but accord ing to Mr. M'Lennan, observation among the savage races still existing in the world always leads back to groups of naked savages living by the capture of wild beasts or upon the more easily caught shellfish. These groups, he con tends, only very slowly developed the idea of kinship, the primary one being that as they held their women in common they were never certain of relationship, except through the mother's side.
Sir John Lubbock points out that in some cases the exclusive common possession of a wife could only be legally acquired by a temporary recog nition of the pre-existing communal rights. Thus, in Babylonia, according to Herodotus (Clio, p. 199), every woman was compelled to offer herself once in the temple of Venus, and only after doing so was she considered free to marry; the same, according to Strabo (lib. 2), was the law in Armenia. In some parts of Cyprus, also among the Nasamones (Melpomene, p. 172) and other /Ethiopian tribes, ho tells us there was a very similar custom ; and Dulaure asserts that it existed also at Carthage and in parts of Greece. The
account which Herodotus gives of the Lydians, though not so clear, seems to indicate a similar law. The Rev. Joseph Roberts relates (p. 9) that in Madura, Balane, and other places, beautiful virgins used to go to the temple once in their lives to offer themselves in honour of the goddess, the story being that a god had converse with them. That the special marriage was an infringe ment of these communal rights, for which some compensation was due, seems to Sir John Lubbock the true explanation of the offerings which virgins were compelled to make before being permitted to marry. Among the Santa!, one of the ab original Indian tribes, marriages take place once a year, mostly in January. For six days, all the candidates for matrimony live in promiscuous concnbinage ; after which only are the separate couples regarded as having established their right to marry. In the patriarchal history of Scripture, and in the early accounts of the manners of ancient nations, the daughter was always con sidered the property of the parent, the wife as the purchase of the husband, and the marriage contract as the deed of transfer. This is still the Lmndation of the Hindi; marriage ceremony, and the Muhammadan bridegroom by the dower pur chases his wife of herself. • Arrian mentions (Indica, cap. xvii.) an ancient Hindu practic'e of giving their daughters to the Victor in prescribed trials of force and 'skill ; and a memorable instance of this is related in the Maim, bharata, of Arjuna, one of the Pandu, by his skill in archery winning Draupadi at her Swayamvara tournament.
the Khand, the boy's father pays a price for the girl, and usually chooses a strong one, several years older than his son, usually about 14 years old, the boy about 10. A feast is held, and the girl is forcibly carried off. The primeval custom of capture of wives con tinues to have symbolic representations. The old Norse for marriage is quan-fang or wife-catching; the German is brut loufti or bride-racing.